"Stories of hearing being restored (usually with no mention of the severity of loss), but no videos of ears growing back. Hearsay of vision being restored, but no lost eyes growing back. Tales of exits from wheelchairs, but no amputated limbs returning to bodies. Just as amputees don't make it on the faith-healer's stage, prayers for a "speedy recovery" in contrast to the doomed-to-fail request for "instant recovery" betray an expectation for god to behave exactly like he would if he wasn't really there. And that's what he's good at. He's the Wonder of the Placebo, the Power behind Suggestion, and the Healer of the Coincidentally-Treated-with-Modern-Medicine. He'll "heal" one child being treated for cancer, but not ALL children with cancer. He will "comfort" the traumatized, but not erase the memory of the trauma itself. Believers will praise his apparent selection for supernatural intervention, but ignore the more obviously in need of that intervention. An all-powerful being who draws on the unlimited power of the very creation of the universe, and who claims to heal--and we're told DOES heal--can't so much as grow a finger back while a camera records." ~Joel Thompson

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